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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29148165">this is love, this is love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SargeantWoof/pseuds/SargeantWoof'>SargeantWoof</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Criminal Minds (US TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Falling In Love, Found Family, Friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:55:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,829</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29148165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SargeantWoof/pseuds/SargeantWoof</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>she orbits emily and emily orbits her, the two of them in their own unique solar system, keeping each other steady, reliable to a fault, their gravity, their <i>selves</i>, anchored to the other, spinning slowly onwards for eternity, each rotation a tug closer until they were almost merged-</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jennifer "JJ" Jareau &amp; Spencer Reid, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>this is love, this is love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>love between them is purple, like a fading bruise- purple, like the color of royalty. it is heady and weighty and thick, seeping into their pores and lingering in the insteps of each footprint they leave in the dirt.</p><p>it is light, too, though, the scent of smoke in their hair, the tiny tremors when they link their pinkies together, the way that they tap each other gently on the hip as they pass the other one in the hallways.</p><p>it feels real in a way nothing else has ever felt.</p><p>+++</p><p>jj wakes up one morning and takes in a breathe of wet air, <em>her window had been open all night and a storm had blown in</em>, and she knows that she is - she is - she is in love.</p><p>irrevocably.</p><p>she is in love.</p><p>+++</p><p>emily wakes up one morning, <em>a morning only two away from jjs sudden awareness</em>, and she realizes that she has been in love from the first moment she had spotted jjs eyes across the crowded BAU offices.</p><p>+++</p><p>spencer side-eyes them when they come into the office, <em>on the day that emily has realized</em>, his keen gaze just as revealing as their feelings. he says nothing, but he <em>knows</em> and is all the more terrifying for it.</p><p>penelope somehow knows as well, yet her awareness flickers like fire light across their skin. she pats emily on the hand as she passes by, sweeps jj up into one of her back breaking hugs, and meanders from the room, pausing once in the doorway to look back at the two of them.</p><p>'she's good at keeping secrets?' jj offers, her hands on her hips in a way emily of the future will associate with lies and surprises, two fists planted into the stronghold that is jj.</p><p>'no she's not,' emily says, her eyes on penelope's back as she trots down the hallway to her office. her voice is fond and her face is calm and jj relaxes, the last of her tension sliding from her shoulders as if it had never been there.</p><p>'no, she not.' jj agrees. her hair almost shimmers in the lights as she tilts her head down to glance at a folder on emily's desk and emily loves her so fiercely in the moment that she cannot breathe, the emotion catching in her chest and rising in her throat. jj says nothing when she catches emily's gaze, twining their pinkies together for a beat before she heads to her desk.</p><p>emily watches for a moment before she spins back to her desk, almost flinching at spencer whose perched across from her.</p><p>he points at her, his voice pitched low. 'i'm happy for you,' he says simply.  she blinks at him but he rises, contentment clear in the lines of his body. 'some of us chase your ideal for decades,' he says abruptly before turning back to his desk and resuming work.</p><p>she blinks after him again but does nothing, following his example and returning to her work.</p><p>+++</p><p>it takes derek three months and twenty seven days to figure out that jj and emily are sleeping together and an additional twelve days to figure out they're serious. </p><p>when he finds out penelope knew the entire time, he scrunches up his face so strangely and goes off on the most ridiculous tangent in the middle of asking penelope for information about a case, that emily laughs herself sick and spends the rest of the day hiccupping.</p><p>+++</p><p>aaron finds out the day emily makes jj her emergency contact, which she quietly does the tuesday after they move in together.</p><p>jj had done it two months before and emily had assumed that aaron had made the connection but, well, he had not.</p><p>she is fumbling her way through an explanation, which is going unbelievably poorly because she loses her head when jj is involved- even - <em>especially</em> - in thoughts, when she decides to fuck it.</p><p>'i'm asking her to marry me,' emily says, very quickly and quietly, snapping out the words like they would've hurt her had they stayed contained any longer.</p><p>aaron pauses in where he's rifling through papers, lifting his face up to meet emily's. she freezes, wincing once before smoothing out her face. she stares at him, her gaze unreadable, her nerves hidden completely behind her façade. he nods once, slowly, setting the papers he had separated out back on top of the stack and reaching down into his second drawer.</p><p>emily has to stop herself from craning her neck to see what he's grabbing, forcing herself to stay completely still, nonchalance oozing out from every pore. he blinks at her, setting a folder down in front of her. 'i had hoped it was serious,' aaron says, his eyes the kindest she's ever seen. 'i'm happy for you.'</p><p>+++</p><p>dave greets her with a kiss on the cheek and a bottle of expensive whiskey and she figures they're fine.</p><p>he was never one to force himself into personal things.</p><p>when she leaves and gives him a hug, he doesn't mention the tear tracks on her cheeks when she pulls away and she doesn’t mention the way he had clung as tight as he could to her.</p><p>+++</p><p>jj has felt people die before, she has been in car chases, in shootouts, in knife fights, and hostage situations.</p><p>she had never been in love until she suddenly was and it was everything. it is everything.</p><p>she orbits emily and emily orbits her, the two of them in their own unique solar system, keeping each other steady, reliable to a fault, their gravity, their <em>selves</em>, anchored to the other, spinning slowly onwards for eternity, each rotation a tug closer until they were almost merged-</p><p>+++</p><p>jj smiled at emily, the first monday of the third month they had worked together and realized, with a sinking heart, that she knew the tension in her stomach, that she knew the smile unfurled on her face, that she knew, she <em>knew</em>, she- it- more, more was happening.</p><p>she left the room, headed to her office, and quietly had a panicked moment before penelope arrived, her familiar gait a balm on jj's wrecked emotions.</p><p>'oh,' penelope said, her face open and kind, carrying jj's favorite cup of coffee in her right hand and a case file in her left. 'are you okay?'</p><p>jj shook her head, her face suddenly wet in the kindness of penelope. 'i- i- i don't know,' she finished weakly, nodding at penelope when she goes to shut the door. 'i just realized something, and it was startling.'</p><p>penelope clucked her tongue, her tone sympathetic. 'is it that you are falling for emily?' she asked bluntly, grinning slightly at the shocked face and punched out noise jj made. penelope nodded sagely, sighing. 'i fucking knew it.' jj frowned and penelope rushed to reassure her. 'i only figured out because i have nothing better to do than watch you people track down unsubs,' she said, holding up her hands.</p><p>jj sighed, 'this is crazy right? emily- she- she doesn't even like me like that.'</p><p>penelope shrugged. 'i can't tell you anything concrete but-' she glanced around, lowering her voice. 'when you aren't looking, she's looking <em>back</em>.'</p><p>+++</p><p>aaron narrows his eyes at her, their piercing weight heavy on her face. she shifts in her chair, aware of the secrets she gives away to a profile and doing it anyways. she trusts aaron and she knows that she's not doing anything wrong - it's unusual yes - but not illegal.</p><p>'and you want emily, emily prentiss, to be your emergency contact?' he says slowly, waiting for her to dip her head. jj nods, her gaze equally as serious. aaron sighs once, a furrow between his brows. 'fine,' he says, handing her a folder with the papers she needs in it. 'fill these out and give them to me tomorrow,' he says.</p><p>jj nods again, her face flushing slightly but rises. she refuses to break their strange ebb and flow by speaking, instead leaving the room in silence to slap the folder down on her desk and raise her eyebrows at emily, a grin making its way across her face at the sight of the other woman already on her way over to her.</p><p>+++</p><p>jj thinks, sometimes, that out of everyone on the team, <em>of course,</em> it had to be spencer who walked in on them kissing in the archives instead of getting their shit and leaving.</p><p>emily had backed her up against the racks, slotted herself between jj's legs, <em>like she belonged there and jj like it, liked it more than she had liked anything anyone else had done, had been awash in the sensations of being so utterly into someone, had been awash in emily, </em>that she had forgotten she was at work.</p><p>she had forgotten that she was at work, had forgotten that even though it was 1 am, that others were in the office, and so, when the door had creaked open, she had barely reacted until spencer had cleared his throat and gone, 'oh, i didn't realize this room was occupied by - <em>jj?</em>'</p><p>jj had pulled back and peeked over emily's shoulder, locking eyes with spencer who was staring at her.</p><p>'i'm gonna go,' emily said softly, pressing an absentminded kiss to jj's shoulder before she turned, sliding past spencer who kept his gaze firmly on jj's, even as the door shut behind emily.</p><p>jj held up her hands. 'spence,' she said. 'i don't know what to say.'</p><p>spencer blinked at her, hurt swirling in his eyes. 'did you think you wouldn't be able to tell me?' he asked. 'do i give off weird homophobic vibes?'</p><p>'what?' jj said, every thought in her head coming to a hard stop. 'no!'</p><p>'then why didn't you tell me?' spencer asked, before frowning harder. 'wait, no, this is about you.' he blinked once at her, softening his countenance before her eyes. 'are you happy?' he asked quietly, his face serious.</p><p>jj nodded, smiling softly at him. he breathed in once, the air catching in his throat before he nodded. 'i'm happy for you,' he said simply and opened his arms, welcoming her into his familiar circle of warmth. she grinned at him before surging forward burrowing herself into him. he sighed in return, clutching her tightly to himself.</p><p>'i'm happy,' jj confessed, her voice low and quiet. 'so happy.' spencer hummed in response, the sound warm and soothing and jj relaxed, the tension she had been carrying relaxing in his easy acceptance.</p><p>+++</p><p>jj watches emily. emily watches jj.</p><p>they revolve around each other, anchored in the other's skin, threaded through their hair, loved deep in the marrow of their bones.</p><p>it was never a question, just an expectation of when the dam would burst, when it would rise to the surface until it was all the other could see, echoing in every little thing, <em>i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you.</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>what the hell even was this - i couldn't tell you - i sit down and try to write for one of the other fics i have that are unfinished and instead y'all get a CM blurb about jemily. how typical. </p><p>side note - i have no idea what the hell this phase of writing is about and i can't tell if it's a delight to write or the worst thing that has happened</p><p>hope you like it though!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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